The Life and Letters
of Dr Samuel HahnemannBy Thomas Lindsley Bradford,
M.D.Presented by Dr Robert Séror

Chapter 77.

Hahnemann's modesty concerning an honorary tablet
Last illness and death

In 1841 two of

Hahnemann's
admirers, Mr. William Leaf,
of London,
and Mr. François Arles,
of Lyon,
France,
wished to place an inscription in the house of Meissen
in which Hahnemann
was born.

The
following is a copy of the

Latin
inscription that was prepared by these gentlemen together with a letter
from Hahnemann
written in French
concerning it - (The
compiler is indebted to the courtesy of Dr. J. H. McClelland, of
Pittsburgh, Pa., for the above inscription and letter. Dr. McClelland owns
the original letter by Hahnemann.)

Hahnemann
the word emendatori
was used instead of conditori.
As will be seen by
the letter this was not pleasing to Hahnemann.
The original of the following letter is written in French,
and as usual with Hahnemann's
writing is so fine and exact as to resemble copper plate :

Hahnemann's modesty concerning an honorary tablet

Paris, Dec. 11, 1841,

"Dear Doctor and Friend,

I have received all your amiable letters, for which I thank you most
heartily, also for your good friendship which I herewith reciprocate.

Dr.

Schubert,
of Leipsic,
has written me that Mr. Leaf
and Mr. Arles
intend to place an inscription on the house in which I was born at Meissen.

He sends me a copy of it so that I may correct anything that I should
judge improper.

"While I appreciate the smallness of my personal value I must
claim in the name of Homoeopathy that the entirely false expression of emendatoribe changed into
that of conditori.
One must break every
alliance with untruth. Mr.
Schubert
writes me to address this correction to you in order to lay it properly
before Mr. Leaf,
which I herewith do ; embracing you,

'I wish you good health and success,

"Samuel Hahnemann"

Dr.

Black,
of England,
in an address before the British
Homoeopathic Congress,
held in 1872, said :(Med.
Investigator, Vol. IX., p. 558.)

I knew

Hahnemann
a year before his death, but age had toldon his frame and big
intellect ; it left untouched his enthusiasm and his desire to work. When
be bade me good-bye, embracing me, he said :

'Work, work, and the good

God
will bless thee."'

It may be mentioned here that

Hahnemann
was, during his life in Paris,
visited by several prominent Allopathic physicians.

Dr. Valentine

Mott,
of New York,
the celebrated surgeon, visited him, and after his return thus spoke :

"

Hahnemann
is one of the most accomplished and scientific physicians of the present
age (Trans. N. Y. State
Hom. Med.. Soc.," Vol. 1., p. 119 (1863).

But the days of celebrations, fêtes and interviews with great men,
with which his life in

Paris
had been filled, were now about to cease. He, who ten years before in Germany
had spoken of himself as on the verge of the grave, was now a very aged
man.

We
have nearly reached the end of the story of this magnificent life. From
privation, trial, calumny ; from the peace of Coethen
; from the distinguished honors of Paris
; let us turn to a death calm and dignified, worthy in every way of the
life.

For the previous ten years

Hahnemann
had been every spring a sufferer from that disease of the very old,
bronchial catarrh.

In April, 1843, he was again taken with this disease and became at once
seriously ill. He as usual prescribed for himself, and when he became too
weak to do this recommended the remedies that his wife and Dr.

Chatran
should use.

Doctor Joseph Antoine Chatran

Patiently he suffered the severe paroxysms of difficult breathing
peculiar to his disease, evincing to the last that benign spirit of
devoutness to

God
that had characterized his whole life. The end came early in the morning of
Sunday, July 2, 1843.

(Rather
a singular error occurred in the letter written by Jahr
to the editor of the Allegemeine
homoopathische Zeitungannouncing
Hahnemann's
death. Instead of writing July
he wrote June
at the beginning of the letter. In Dr. Hering's
copy of the Zeitung
the letter is dated Juni
4, but Dr. Hering
in his characteristic blue pencil mark has crossed this and written Juli.
From the Zeitung
this error was copied into the Albrecht
books, Ameke
gives it as June
4, Fischer
in his translation from Albrechtgives
July 4, and this date is correct. Hahnemann
certainly died on July 2d, at five in, the morning, and Jahr
sent the first news to Germany,
writing two days later, on July
4th.)

Last illness and death

"HAHNEMANN IS DEAD !

"About the 15th of April he was taken ill with the malady that
usually attacked him in the spring, a bronchial catarrh, and it took such
hold of him that his wife admitted no one.

The report was spread several times that he was dead ; this, however,
was contradicted. I had been intending to call myself when I received a
note from Madame

Hahnemann
begging me to come that same day.

I went at once and was admitted to

Hahnemann’s
bedroom. Here, think of the sight, instead of seeing Hahnemann,
the dear, friendly old man, smile his greeting, I found his wife
stretched, in tears, on the bed and him lying cold and stiff by her side,
having passed five hours before into that life where there is no strife,
no sickness and no death.

Yes, dear friends, our venerable

Father
Hahnemann has finished
his course ; a chest affection has, after a six weeks' illness, liberated
his spirit from its weary frame.

"His mental powers remained unimpaired up to the last moment, and
although his voice became more and more unintelligible yet his broken
words testified to the continued clearness of his mind and to the calm
with which he anticipated his approaching end.

At the very commencement of his illness he told those about him that
this would be his last, as his frame was worn out. At first he treated
himself, and till a short time before his death he expressed his opinions
relative to the remedies recommended by his wife and a certain Dr.

Chatran.
He only really suffered just at the end from increasing oppression on the
chest.

When after one such attack his wife said :

'Providence

surely
owes you exemption from all suffering, as you have relieved so many others
and have suffered so many hardships in your arduous life, he answered :

'Why should I expect exemption from suffering ? Everyone in this world
works according to the gifts and powers which he has received from

Providence,
and more or less are words used only before the judgment seat of man, not
before that of Providence.
Providence
owes me nothing. I owe it much. Yes, everything.'

" Profound grief for this great loss is felt here by all his
followers. All shed tears of gratitude and affection for him. But the loss
of those who have had the happiness of enjoying the friendship and
affection of this great man can only be estimated by those who have known
him in his domestic circle, and especially during his last years.

He, himself, when not persecuted by others, was not only a good, but a
simple-hearted and benevolent man, who was never happier than when among
friends to whom he could unreservedly open his heart. Well, he has nobly
fought through and gloriously completed his difficult and often painful
course.

Sit ei terra
levis !"

Dr.

Hull
announced his death in the Homoeopathic
Examiner (Hom.
Exam., Vol. 3, p. 257) (Sept., 1843).

for September,
1843, as follows :

" This
impressive event took place on the second of July, after a protracted
bronchial catarrh. The disease began on the twelfth of April, two days
after he had celebrated his eighty seventh birthday in excellent health
and spirit.

Hahnemann

had for
twenty years suffered from attacks of this disease in the spring of the
year. He had ever, as in this instance, prescribed for himself.

This last attack set in with a serious diarrhoea, which exhausted him
very much. In the early stages of the sickness he announced to his friends
the opinion that he could not survive it.

'The earthly frame is worn out'

was his expression. He seems to have suffered but slightly till a short
time (probably a few days only) before his disease, when a dyspnoea came
on in paroxysms increasing in severity until the final one, which lasted
thirteen hours and terminated in suffocation."

Croserio

writing to
Dr. Hull,
says :

"
How much equanimity, patience and imperturbable goodness he exhibited !
Though he had a distinct presentiment of his approaching end, yet he never
permitted an expression to escape him which could alarm his wife ; he
calmly made his final arrangements, and embraced each of his friends with
tenderness, such as belonged to a final adieu, but with steady equanimity.

Hahnemann

expired at
5 A.m. Two hours afterwards I visited his sacred remains. The face
expressed an ineffable calm. Death could not detract the least from the
angelic goodness which belonged to the expression of his features."

It is said that the widow of

Hahnemann
applied for and received permission to retain his body for twenty days
beyond the usual time of interment. The body was embalmed by Ganal(Hom. Exam,,
Vol. 3., p. 258.)

It does not seem that many people saw

Hahnemann
during his last illness. Jahr
expressed himself to that effect, implying that Its best friends were
excluded from the sick chamber.

Dr.

Suss-Hahnemann,
in a letter to the editor of the British
Journal of Homoeopathy,
May 30, 1865, says
: (Brit. Jour. Hom.,
Vol. 13., p. 423).)

Unfortunately I was only present at the very last dying moments of my
grandfather, not even on the eve of his death, although my late mother and
I had arrived in Paris already a whole week previous to this sad event
taking place.

In spite of our most earnest entreaties, in spite of

Hahnemann's
own wish to see once more his favorite daughter, Madame Hahnemann
resolutely and sternly refused us an interview with our dying parent, when
he would have been still able to speak to us and to bless us."

Hahnemann's

death
was a great grief to the many friends of the new system of medicine. It
was generally noticed in the journals of both medical schools.

Master,
an event quite unexpected by those who on his last birthday, three months
before, were witnesses of the mental and bodily vigor of which he then
gave proof.

" Samuel

Hahnemann
died in his eighty-ninth year at his house in the Rue
de Milan, Paris, at
five o'clock on the morning of Sunday,
2d July, after an
illness of six weeks.

"
His remains are for the present laid in Madame

Hahnemann's
family vault at Montmartre,
but will probably, ere long, be transferred to Germany.

"His illness commenced with a bilious diarrhoea, succeeded by an
intermittent fever, which greatly reduced his strength. It first assumed a
tertian, then a quotidian type ; he rallied surprisingly, however, and was
deemed convalescent, when bronchitis senilis supervened, under which he
sunk in three days.

He retained his faculties entire to the last, and shortly before he
expired dictated a short and simple epitaph :

Non inutilis vixi. (I have not lived in vain).

"He bade

adieu
to his wife and friends, commended himself to God,
and died.

"Shortly before his death, while suffering from difficulty of
breathing, his wife said to him :

'Providence owes you a mitigation of your sufferings, since, in your
life, you have alleviated the sufferings of so many, and yourself endured
so much.'

' Me,' replied the dying sage, 'why then me ?

Each man here below works as

God
gives him strength, and meets with a greater or less reward at the
judgment seat of man ; but he can claim no reward at the judgment seat of God.

God

owes me nothing,
but I owe God
much, yea all.' These are memorable words, spoken in death bed sincerity.

"

Hahnemann
is dead, but his mighty truth cannot die ; so that while we turn sadder
and wiser from the deathbed of our great Master, who, when living taught
us how to live, and now has taught us how to die, if we would have him
still to guide our way, we must seek his spirit, and may it prove a bond
of sacred union in the work he has so nobly done ; and while we prosecute
this we shall have the proud gratification that we are completing his
labors and erecting his monument."

In the same
number of the British
Journalappears
the following :

"Though he had been ill for many weeks before, few of those around
him anticipated that his demise was near at hand ; but he himself seemed
to have expected it, as some months before he said to a friend,

' It is perhaps time that I quit this earth, but I leave it all and
always in the hands of my

God.
My head is full of truth for the good of mankind, and I have no wish to
live but in so far as I can serve my fellowmen.'

"
His intellect remained quite unclouded to the last, and but a few moments
before his death he uttered some epithet of endearment to his wife, and
pressed the hand of his favorite servant, who was supporting him in his
arms."

Albrecht

writes :

"How deeply it grieved us when on the 10th day of July, 1843, and
therefore just one month before a convention of Homoeopathic physicians
was to be held in

Dresden
under the direction of Dr. Trinks,
President of the Board of Health, we read the following communication :

'Homoeopathy has suffered a great loss.

Its founder, Samuel

Hahnemann,
the Nestor of German
physicians, died yesterday morning at five o'clock in his eighty-eighth
year.

The sorrow on account of his death is extraordinarily great, and his
funeral may be one of the largest ever solemnized in